Black Harvest International Festival Of Film And Video

Eighth annual fest offers exposure to black-themed films

August 02, 2002|By Patrick Z. McGavin. Special to the Tribune.

The city's crowded but invaluable roster of regional and specialized film festivals receives another boost with the eighth annual Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video this weekend. The festival, presented by the Gene Siskel Film Center, offers needed exposure to black-themed films, particularly of the African diaspora.

The festival, running through Aug. 15, kicks off with a special 6 p.m. program Friday at the Gene Siskel Film Center, featuring a street level performance by the Muntu Dance Theatre. The dance performance is followed by the two opening night attractions: Martine Chartrand's award-winning short, "Black Soul," and Dani Kouyate's "Sia -- The Python's Dream," a feature from Burkina Faso that dramatizes an ancient African myth.

A party will follow the screening.

On Saturday, local critic Sergio Mims, a film programming consultant, will moderate a panel discussion titled "Does Black Cinema Get Respect?" The festival highlights include Nick Broomfield's documentary examining the potential connection between the unsolved deaths of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls and the Los Angeles police department's Rampart corruption scandal in "Biggie and Tupac"; Neema Barnette's "Civil Brand," about a political uprising at a women's prison; and Joel Katz's haunting video documentary "Strange Fruit," a cultural investigation into the origins of the powerful anti-lynching song brilliantly interpreted by Billie Holiday.

The Gene Siskel Film Center (164 N. State St.) presents the eighth annual Black Harvest International Festival of Film and Video Friday through Aug. 15. The Saturday panel discussion is free. Tickets are $8, $4 for Film Center members, and are available at Ticketmaster 312-575-8000 or visit their website, www.ticketmaster.com. Discount parking is available at 20 E. Randolph St. For more information, call the Film Center's hot line at 312-846-2800 or its general number 312-846-2600, or visit its website: www.siskelfilmcenter.org.

Following are capsule reviews of festival films that were available for critics to preview:

"Sia -- The Python's Dream" (star)(star)(star) (Dani Kouyate; France/Burkina Faso). The story is sometimes hard to figure out, but the dazzling visual precision overcomes the rough spots. The beautiful, beguiling title character is ordered to be sacrificed by the village's powerful ruler, who believes her death will restore order and wealth to the kingdom. The charismatic and powerful army lieutenant she has been promised to intervenes, creating a fascinating power struggle. English subtitled. (7 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Sunday)

"Yolngu Boy" (star)(star)1/2 (Stephen Johnson; Australia). With intimations of Fred Schepsi's "The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith," but with greater comic range, the story concerns three Aboriginal teenagers, ostracized by their tribe, who undertake a perilous trek through the vast stretches of the Outback to gain admittance into the tribal order. The exterior locations are breathtaking, but the effectiveness of the story is blunted by poor characterization and unconvincing action. (6:15 p.m. Monday)

"Strange Fruit" (star)(star)(star)1/2 (Joel Katz; U.S.). A marvelous, often extraordinary cultural excavation of the political, social and artistic significance of the title song that was powerfully interpreted by Billie Holiday. The author of this anti-lynching anthem was Abel Meeropol (a.k.a. Lewis Allan), the leftist schoolteacher who gained international attention for adopting the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg following their execution. The movie is a mediation on the history of lynching, the Old Left and the complex relationship between Jewish composers and black performers. It's on the same program with Jamal Joseph's "Hughes' Dream Harlem." (4:15 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Tuesday)

"Nelio's Story" (star)(star)(star) (Solveig Nordlund; Sweden/Portugal/Mozambique). A visually daring story of survival and adventure about a young boy whose family is massacred in a guerilla war. After killing the mercenary responsible for their deaths, he undertakes an epic quest for freedom and locating an alternate family, and remakes himself as the intrepid leader of an urban street gang. The expert use of locations, landscape, water and cityscapes intensifies the feeling of life out of balance. African dialect; English subtitled. (6:15 p.m. Tuesday)

"Civil Brand" (star)(star)(star) (Neema Barnette; U.S.). The feature adroitly mixes naturalistic style with a more theatrical forms of expression --direct address camera commentators --in dramatizing the sexual exploitation, physical abuse and dehumanizing conditions that lead to a revolt among a group of women's inmates. The material is occasionally overwrought and dramatically unconvincing, but the performances, writing and tabloid immediacy of the filmmaking gives this work a searing edge and intensity. (8:30 p.m. Saturday and 6:15 p.m. Thursday)

"Kali's Vibe" (star)(star)(star) (Shari Carpenter; U.S.). The title character is a smart, competent social worker who breaks off her relationship with an irrepressibly unfaithful gay lover and improbably finds herself falling into the arms of a womanizing male officer worker. The movie has a jazzy, clever construction, and the actors produce some very sharp, funny and emotionally appealing work that offsets the movie's questionable sexual politics. (8:30 p.m. Thursday)